I purchased my car (68 firebird 400 vert) about 1 year ago. Since then i haven't had the time or money to toy with it. The person i got it off of had it painted right before i purchased it. I finally have the time to do some work on it and i've noticed that the rocker panels and parts of the quarters and fenders still have some orange peel and need to be wet sanded. Im new to working of classic cars and im only 22 yrs old, but i looked into it and it seems wet sanding isn't that hard to do. So my question is.......Is it still ok to wet sand it since it got painted over a year ago?

I purchased my car (68 firebird 400 vert) about 1 year ago. Since then i haven't had the time or money to toy with it. The person i got it off of had it painted right before i purchased it. I finally have the time to do some work on it and i've noticed that the rocker panels and parts of the quarters and fenders still have some orange peel and need to be wet sanded. Im new to working of classic cars and im only 22 yrs old, but i looked into it and it seems wet sanding isn't that hard to do. So my question is.......Is it still ok to wet sand it since it got painted over a year ago?

Thanks Blaise

I am with Barry, cutting and buffing something you don't have a VERY good knowledge of how it was applied and what was applied, you are asking for some SERIOUS trouble.

Not an expert here..... if you are going to have someone else respray it anyway..... what's the harm in doing a small spot to see what he can do etc.... worse thing that could happen....someone else would have to sand and repspray it.....

Yea That's what I was thinking, I can tell the guy was lazy because the whole car was wet sanded and buffed Except the bottom of the rockers and the bottom of the quarters, so I'm just going to lightly wet sand them spots with some 2000 or 3000 sandpaper, just to try to get the orange peel out. The man who painted the car is not in my city anymore and I'm not sure where he is.

Makes me wonder - if it's just at the bottom of the quarters and on the rockers, is it that @#$% chip guard crap? If not, and is paint best listen to Barry and Brian as they are the pros here if you don't want to chance a repaint. These are the main two guys that made my efforts to make my '31's paint job a success

The thing is large orange peel sanded a little looks worse than the orange peel. Down low it is very common to have less material, a LOT of painters get lazy down low and around corners.

If you have no problem with the reality of cutting thru the clear and then having it repainted then rock on.

It is very simple, I am not saying you are right or wrong. As long as you know YOUR expectations and are ready for what you get. If your expectation is a nice car that if you look real close in those lower areas there is some orange peel, "well get up off your knees because I am going to live it it". Then leave it alone because it is likely you won't get it better before you ruin it.

If you expectation is a super nice with and gadnabit you want every inch super nice, then cut and buff it and if you fail then it gets re-shot, no harm done.

It really comes down to that, and you best find out what it will cost before you jump in, you may not be ready for that.

The short answear ......NO ,leave it alone, YOU WILL BURN THROUGH IT....
Why ???
1) sanding and buffing needs to be done within a couple weeks.the paimt is just too hard now and the coarse compounds needed will certainly burn it in the hands of a newbie.
2) sanding the top surfaces is a common practice for painting used cars ,it sounds like it was a quicky so it could be sold. you'll be opening a big can of worms playing around with it.
............You got a nice car there ,enjoy it ,live with the flaws for now save your money and get it repainted to perfection but till then drive it and enjoy it...

...................OK ,so now I remember when I was 22 and you've probably already bought or borrowed a buffer,even went to pep boys and got some small bottles of compound ,so leave the rocker for last you'll need to learn some control over the buffer and all those edges will surely get caught in the wheel and get burnt so put some masking tape on the edges before buffing them,especially the door edge ,where the door meets the 1/4...

Dont worry ,we wont say "I told you so" when your next post is about touch up painting and "how to blend paint".......Well......I wont say it anyway...who knows if your anything like me, twenty or thirty years from now you'll have your own bodyshop ...I was never one to listen to good,sound advice either...good luck with whatever path you choose..

I wouldn't call the guy lazy, wet standing an entire car is a huge amount of work! If these areas are very low on the car (rocker panels?!) I really don't see the fuss. Could just be his way of dealing with chips by leaving more material. I would just leave it, there are very few people who crawl halfway under a car to look at their reflection in a rocker panel!
K

Okay , just to be realistic here . You bought the car about a year ago and just now found that the bottom of the rocker panels and quarter panels have orange peel . So what is your concern ? Like was already mentioned . What does it hurt ? Nobody is going to get on their knees to see if they can see their reflection in the bottom of your rocker panels .

LOL, I seem to get every one of them at my shop...The less they pay the further down they go....

Ain't it the truth . That's the ones who want every nick and ding taken out and a custom paint job for $500.oo . I had one of them back in '85 and I purposely overpriced it by 50% just to make sure I didn't get the job. Back then I actually could have done it for $500.oo and been okay , but I priced it at $750.oo because a friend said he'd had trouble getting paid from the same guy .

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